The Future is an Amoeba

Posted on August 24, 2015

Several of us from Sparks Grove had the opportunity in July to attend the World Futures Conference in San Francisco featuring some of the most forward thinking leaders, futurists and innovators from companies such as Intel, Salesforce, Microsoft, Etsy and more. We also had the opportunity to interview and videotape all these leaders and speakers as part of a video series called “Making the Future” that we are producing in partnership with World Future Society. The series will be released very soon. Stay tuned for an announcement.

One of the questions we asked these leaders was “If the future was a living thing, what would it be?” The answers were not what I expected, but of course make perfect sense in hindsight. Some said the future was a cock roach, a bird soaring on the wind, a baby dragon. However, many revolved around this idea that the future is an amoeba, a jellyfish, a manatee, a fungus, a big brain, a living organism… all sharing malleable, amorphous like, persistent, flexible, living and interconnected characteristics. Amoebas in particular are found in most living things… algae, animals and fungi. They are everywhere and have the ability to spread and expand.

Many futurists agree that the future is a human. That humans and the human spirit will triumph over machine and robots. So of course the future is an amoeba… it’s the collective human mind, presence and spirit that will shape, make and transform our future tomorrows. That’s why I wholeheartedly agree that the future is an amoeba.